Whenever I need
to slow down and relax I work on a project I’ve had going off and on over the past
twenty five years. Now that I’ve completed
my photo album project by getting
all of the loose and unprinted photos into albums I feel like I have more time
to devote to this other project.
The album on the far left is the one I'm
placing all of my written stories into
For quite some
time I’ve been tracing my ancestry and writing down stories about the things I’ve
been told and information I’ve discovered as I’ve been tracking down where I
come from. This has been a long held
passion of mine and I find it so fascinating.
I can happily lose myself for hours combing through documents, newspaper
clippings and countless websites learning about relatives I haven’t had the
chance to know and learning little things about them. Often I find myself saying “Wow! I think I
get this trait from them!” or most often “Holy cow! I had no idea.”
I used to love
visiting with my grandparents and great grandparents and listening to them tell
of various things they did, who they spent their time with, how they met their
husbands or wives and about their wedding day.
Even small things like their favorite recipes and how they liked to garden
or sew. Little quirks or habits they
had. Funny stories about mishaps and the
misadventures they went on. There seemed
to be a lot of those stories. If only I’d
had the presence of mind to write those things down at the time. I’m doing it now, as best as I can.
After using
websites like Family Search and Ancestry.com as well as many other
archival sites I’ve amassed quite a bit of information and my family tree is
huge. My ancestors had a lot of kids
back in the day. It can overwhelm me at
times with too much information so I’ll take breaks and then plunge right back
in. Taking notes and then writing when
the information is fresh in my mind is really helpful so I don’t forget. I’ve had those moments where I’ve looked at
something I jotted down and wondered “what was this for?” or “who was I working
on?” Eventually I figured it out, but
sometimes it was a real brain teaser.
As part of the
medical research I participate in with the Mayo Clinic I had my DNA analyzed
for a genome study. The heritage part of
that study stated I am mostly Western European which I pretty much already know,
however it also said I am 15% Sardinian.
I’ve yet to discover anyone in my family from that area of Italy or
Italy at all for that matter so, hmmmm.
What do you suppose that means?
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I’ve hit that
point where it is time to introduce myself to my extended relatives and see what
they may know. Do they have any
additional information? How about photos? Documentation? I’d love to find out more and if I can make
new acquaintances in the process wouldn’t that be cool! I know a lot already, but I’d love to know
more. Do you find this stuff
fascinating? Boy, I sure do.
One of my favorite places to find out more: findagrave.com It's amazing what you can discover there, along with ancestry.com, etc.
ReplyDeleteI do need to warn you, though -- sometimes you find out things you'd rather not know. A mystery 1st cousin showed up on Ancestry that caused a lot of consternation in my extended family. I think I finally figured where he came from -- but a lot of skeletons were revealed during the process. ewwwww...
I use findagrave.com too. It has been useful to clear up a few details. I'm realistic about the fact that there are likely to be skeletons. I'm not that worried about it. Whatever happens, happens. We're all imperfect souls in this world. I have no illusions otherwise. ;)
DeleteNo matter the skeletons, searching through the family tree is fun. Plus when you break down a brick wall it is exhilarating!
DeleteMy brother discovered that a cousin in our family tree was a co -worker in his office! They were talking about researching family history & happened to mention who they both used to gain admittance to the Sons of the American Revolution. They've become good friends. When my brother moved to that state none of our immediate family had ever lived there but cousin had lived around there his whole life. We share the same grandfather + that came here in 1752.
ReplyDeleteMy husband found a genealogy page(s) for his mother's side and it's quite extensive and I've yet to figure out how we're connected but she does have names from both my mother & father's side (and my parents came from different parts of the country but somehow they both had ancestors who lived in NC.)a